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In Defense of Free Speech

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President of Egypt, Mohammad Morsi

President of Egypt, Mohammad Morsi


by Joe Giambrone

Freedom of speech is essentially dying by the day here in the modern world. Threats are real and slippery slope test cases have been piling up to where we must seriously address this issue if we are to avoid slipping into Orwellian double-speak and mandated speech stripped of unacceptable ideas. For it is about the ideas, not the words themselves. The words spoken are merely a fixed form that represents the underlying thoughts to be communicated. Censoring out speech means censoring out ideas that one finds objectionable for whatever reasons.

And that's unconstitutional.

Amendment One:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

This bad movie trailer, "The Innocence of Muslims," essentially 14 minutes of terrible acting and visual effects with deliberately offensive situations and dubbed dialogue, is now being used as evidence in order to change the law of the land in the United States. More than a few commentators have suggested that the United States clamp down on such expressions, as it may offend people.

So what?

Yes. So what? As the line goes, "Maybe you need to be offended."

The answer to speech you disagree with is " (drum roll) " MORE SPEECH. If people are in disagreement with the historical situation portrayed in that film, they have an opportunity to present their own case, their own historical evidence, their own version of the matter. By rendering this topic to the realm of sacred cows, it would eliminate all dissenting discussion and ideas.

Who gets to decide then what the actual historical record is?

Who gets to decide how much we can question this dogmatic interpretation?

We don't rewrite the U.S. Constitution based on the possibility that someone somewhere might be offended by something. Nor should we. That truly is akin to religious fundamentalism, to Sharia Law. These are bedrock principles of our nation that are not negotiable, despite the endless assaults on freedom of expression, which we should be well aware of and actively oppose.

I don't agree with the messages of that movie trailer, but in America we have a right to put the ideas out into the world without fear of government crackdown (at least we used to; we're supposed to). Other less free regimes and societies respond that what is good for their citizens should be enforced here as well. Examples will follow.

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Joe Giambrone is an American author, freelance writer and filmmaker. Non-fiction works appear at International Policy Digest, WhoWhatWhy, Foreign Policy Journal, Counterpunch, Globalresearch, , OpedNews, High Times and other online outlets. His science fiction thriller Transfixion and his Hollywood satire (more...)
 
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